Duo with Adam Simmons this Thursday night

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I’m thrilled to be 1% of the guests invited to be part of Adam Simmons’ extraordinary project 100:25:1, that’s been running just about every night at Conduit Arts throughout November. I’ve gotten along as an audience member to a few of these nights, and it’s been something quite special. To briefly sum up the project, Adam is performing 100 duets throughout the month, drawing on Melbourne musicians from different scenes and musical traditions. These interconnections are being mapped throughout the month, that will eventually form the basis of an online database.

Also performing duets on Thursday night  with Adam will be Aviva Endean, Matt Earl, and Simon Lewis.

This will probably be my last Melbourne gig for 2015.

26 November 2015, 8pm – duo with Adam Simmons @ Conduit Arts, 83 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. Facebook event. Tickets.

Parhelion & Zac Keiller “Farthest North”

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farthest north

Several years ago, guitarist Zac Keiller asked me to contribute some text to an ambient album he was making in collaboration with Parhelion, that sought to invoke the atmospheres of the polar regions. I mined a paragraph from an unpublished short story of mine that seemed relevant (well, my story was set in Antarctica, whereas this album was concerned with the northern polar regions), sent it off to Zac then forgot about the whole thing. The other week, the album arrived in the mail; a handsome digipak with both an audio CD and DVD, with my long-forgotten text nicely featured on the inside panel. The album may have been out for a year or two already. It’s available from Cyclic Law.

THIS Ensemble Country Tour reflections

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THIS Ensemble Country Tour, 28 October – 3 November 2015. Avoca – Minyip – Jeparit – Natimuk (Nati Frinj Festival) – Dimboola – Horsham.

The road

The horizonMinyip

Draught

The stars

The moon

The backyards

The picnics

The pubs

The railway tracks

The light

The abandoned servo

I was leaning against the building, playing it by bashing my elbows into it. I thought to myself ‘I’m probably going to hurt myself here’, but I felt fine afterwards.

The car dance/confrontation

The illnesses and the injuries

The lakes

The chips

The vegetarian option

The snoring

The smells

The coffee

The kid who said “that’s cool”

The trees

The cop

The soup

The giddy thrill of playing and hanging out with so many ridiculously talented people

The unexpected arrivals

The dancers who appeared out of nowhere

The bridges

The gong

My fingers were numb after holding the gong for a couple of hours. The feeling mostly came back the next day; but even now, over a week later, part of my index finger is still numb. Or is it calloused?

The beauty so intense I felt I had to look away…but didn’t

‘We are all going to die’

The jealousies

The fighting

The trying and failing, but trying anyway

Walking away and coming back

Compassion

Permission

The love

The rhythms

The hat

The advice

The bullshit

The wisdom

The quiet

The flies

Billy chai

The field

Liberté, égalité, fraternité

The bone

Commitments made

In the field, I pushed myself up from the ground and my elbow locked up like it was dislocated or something. Seems like I had hurt it the other day after all. Horsham Roadhouse

The fire

The motion (is its own reward)

Horsham Roadhouse, 1:30am

Space is the place

The river

The dead rabbit

The temple

The birds

The salt

My feet broke through a damp part of the salt pan. Walking back across the lake, I noticed blood in the footprints I made (left foot). Two of my toes were cut; they must have been sliced by salt crystals when I fell through the surface. I bled all the way back across the lake.

The mealPink Lake

The river dance

The mist

The table walk

The dice

The music

Chun-liang

Dur-e

Elnaz

Simon

Adrian

Reuben

Lisa

Tamsin

Tony

Jonathon

Michael

Ren

Performances in Melbourne this weekend

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Two afternoon gigs this weekend around town:

7 November 2015, 1:30pm – Antechamber @ Footscray Community Arts Centre, Australia. Facebook event.

  • Phonetic Orchestra with Jim Denley
  • Jenny Barnes/Clinton Green/Michael McNab – Very excited about this trio. Michael and I have been playing together a lot on the recent THIS Ensemble tour, and I’m a gushing fan of Jenny as well.
  • Clinton Green – First solo multiple turntable performance for a while.

8 November 2015, 11am-4pm – Re::set @ Abbotsford Convent – Bishop’s Parlour, Victoria, Australia. Facebook event.

A large and varied line-up of performances and diffusions as part of the Abbotsford Convent’s Open Spaces day (there’s also a ‘zine fair, dance and other performances). I will be doing a solo turntable performance scheduled for 12:20pm. The full performance line-up is:

  • Ben Byrne
  • Clinton Green
  • Ernie Althoff
  • Shani Mohini-Holmes & Dale Gorfinkel
  • Michael McNab
  • Rebecca Jensen
  • John Jacobs
  • Llara Goodall & Carey Knight
  • Sister

Improv Idol – Thursday 1 October, 8pm

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We’re are getting towards the pointy end of Improv Idol; the improvisation ‘talent show’ conceived by myself and Carmen Chan. We’ve announced our panel of expert judges and our final contestants, and it all goes down at the Wesley Anne in Northcote next Thursday night (1st of October). YOU the audience will vote for the best member of an improvising ensemble, who then go through to battle it out in a final round.

improvidollogo

Tonight from midnight, Carmen and I will be joined by one of our judges in Carolyn Connors on The Sound Barrier on PBS-FM, chatting to host (and another member of our judging panel!) Ian Parsons about good/bad/winning/losing improvisation. Tune in tonight or listen to the programme at your leisure from tomorrow. Ian has written this post on improvisation leading up the show.